Clause 2 - Pilot order
European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill
9:30 am
Mr Crispin Blunt (Reigate, Conservative)
Of course, I did. It is a fair point to make, because our two parties have competing philosophies at the heart of our beliefs. It is difficult to find anything in the blancmange that is Liberal Democrat policy that is identifiable as a core set of philosophical beliefs. Their recent success, which is related to the crisis in representative politics, as are the amendment and the Bill, partially reflects the fact that the electorate feel increasingly disengaged from the political process and representative politics. My hon. Friend's amendment is designed to address that, as is the Bill.
It is a symptom rather than a cure that we are debating measures such as these. We would be better off considering more fundamental questions about the crisis in representative politics than trying to address the issue with the measures in the Bill, such as various pilot schemes that try to increase voter turnout.
A fundamental problem is that both the major parties have been more successful at attacking each other than at promoting their own philosophies, beliefs and policies to the public. One only has to remember the Labour party when it was in opposition between 1994 and 1997, and its successful campaign about sleaze in the Conservative Government, which was non-existent. Not a single Minister was accused or convicted of taking money to promote different points
of view. I am talking about the crisis in representative politics. The amendment goes straight to the heart of that issue. I assure you, Mr. Cook, that I will not repeat this speech later, or when we are discussing another amendment.
The Conservative Government's reputation was demolished extremely effectively, not least by the sleaze issue. New Labour then came into power. Part of its presentation to the public was that new Labour was not old Labour, hence the change of name and the presentation of a fundamental change in what the Labour party stood for—to be taken seriously as a guiding philosophy—the end of clause IV and the end of the objective of redistributing wealth. It was a change from a socialist party to a modern social democratic party.
Since then, the electorate have begun to realise that all is not quite as it seems and that, as Labour Members will be only too painfully aware, there is a crisis of confidence in their party because of what is seen as spin and the elevation of presentation over substance. If we politicians are to address the crisis in representational politics, we must treat each other and each other's policies with respect, so that we do not repeat what happened between 1994 and 1997. We should promote each other's virtues in order to juxtapose the two competing philosophies with which we are trying to engage the attention and support of the public.
If we are able to do that, we shall not need Bills such as this to increase artificially voter turnout, or amendments such as this—which give people the opportunity to say ''a curse on all your houses''—because we shall have gone a long way towards addressing the crisis in representational politics.